A.R.E.S.

EDIT: Solution found. If your computer uses hardware that greatly exceeds the system requirements of a particular 2D game, and that game is running with both of the following symptoms, please point the developer of that game to this thread and see if they can implement a similar fix:

- Frame rate is at sustained, non-fluctuating 42 FPS, including while viewing logos and at the main menu (for 60 Hz monitor - might be faster, but similarly crippled, for displays with a higher native refresh rate).

- One or more CPU cores is locked at 100% load while the game is in focus (open the task manager and check the performance tab to verify).

a GTX680 is not nearly enough to run this type of game... No, to be serious, it's maybe a problem with optimus (the game may be running on the integrated graphic thingy)... Go check that through the NVidia configuration panel!

a GTX680 is not nearly enough to run this type of game... No, to be serious, it's maybe a problem with optimus (the game may be running on the integrated graphic thingy)... Go check that through the NVidia configuration panel!

I'm looking through the nVidia control panel, but I can't find anything regarding Optimus in either the 3D Program settings or the rest of the control panel. Can you tell me where I need to look to find it?

a GTX680 is not nearly enough to run this type of game... No, to be serious, it's maybe a problem with optimus (the game may be running on the integrated graphic thingy)... Go check that through the NVidia configuration panel!

I'm looking through the nVidia control panel, but I can't find anything regarding Optimus in either the 3D Program settings or the rest of the control panel. Can you tell me where I need to look to find it?

I'm french, so the names I'm gonna give you in the control panel may be a bit different... So, first, you go in the 3D Program Settings, then, you click on the "program parameters" tab. Then, click "add", find your game in the steam folder (ares.exe). And finally check with what graphical processeur is running the game. If the game is running with the integrated chip, change it to the "processor NVIDIA high performances", or something like that... I had to do that in order to stop lags too.

I'm french, so the names I'm gonna give you in the control panel may be a bit different... So, first, you go in the 3D Program Settings, then, you click on the "program parameters" tab. Then, click "add", find your game in the steam folder (ares.exe). And finally check with what graphical processeur is running the game. If the game is running with the integrated chip, change it to the "processor NVIDIA high performances", or something like that... I had to do that in order to stop lags too.

Ok, I know the section you are talking about. However I do not have integrated graphics on my machine, or none that I know of anyway (ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE and i3770K). When I select the ARES.exe in the 3D Settings tab, here are all of the options I have:

For CUDA - GPUs, the only option available is the 680 card, so I'm fairly certain that is not causing the problem.

Among the other options, I have tried forcing Vsync, Triple buffering, and Threaded optimization both on and off, as well as switching Power management from 'adaptive' to 'prefer maximum performance', and trying every available option for 'multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration' and 'maximum pre-rendered frames'. None of the changes had any effect, and I can't imagine any of the other options would do anything.

Appreciate the help, though. Are there any other possibilities you can think of?

Direct X runtime (Yes i know you have DX11 and 10 but the base direct X 9 runtime are still a seperate layer and required for many games still and the default DX 9 in win 7 is way out of date compared to that link above).

Direct X runtime (Yes i know you have DX11 and 10 but the base direct X 9 runtime are still a seperate layer and required for many games still and the default DX 9 in win 7 is way out of date compared to that link above).

Thanks for the suggestion. I set all the options as you listed, changed my power management to high performance, and installed the DirectX runtimes, but no change. The framerate chugs right from the opening logos.

I ask because if the game is indeed rendering too many frames (as Mr. Derpacus is hinting at), it could overwhelm any vsync operation and cause continuous 'misses', leading to the crazy reduced frame rate.

Forcing adaptive vsync may cause the game to act more well-behaved as adaptive vsync was created exactly to combat mismatches between FPS and monitor refresh rate.

(If this is the case, then this whole problem would likely not be nVidia's fault, but the developer's; they would probably have failed to provide proper FPS capping.)

I ask because if the game is indeed rendering too many frames (as Mr. Derpacus is hinting at), it could overwhelm any vsync operation and cause continuous 'misses', leading to the crazy reduced frame rate.

Forcing adaptive vsync may cause the game to act more well-behaved as adaptive vsync was created exactly to combat mismatches between FPS and monitor refresh rate.

(If this is the case, then this whole problem would likely not be nVidia's fault, but the developer's; they would probably have failed to provide proper FPS capping.)

Interesting. I tried forcing adaptive sync and it did not improve the situation at all. However, just for the hell of it I gave adaptive-half refresh a try, and it actually improved the frame rate a little, though still not enough to really be playable. I'd say the framerate before was about 15 FPS, and with the adaptive-half refresh enabled it goes up to about 25 (doesn't feel like a full 30 to me, even though that is half my monitor's refresh of 60).